I Need You: A Bittersweet One-Shot
by Felicity Hartington
Summary: Finnick is realizing slowly that in the morning he's leaving Annie, the only woman he has ever truly loved. This is a short one-shot that describes Finnick's need for Annie Cresta, "the poor, mad girl." Takes place during Mockingjay. R&R!


_**I Need You: A Bittersweet One-Shot **_

Annie lay on her side watching as the holographic moon traveled across the ceiling. Her bright green-blue eyes seemed to spark in the darkness, making the gloom shine. It had been four days since she had been rescued from the Capitol. And it still haunted everything in her consciousness, when she closed her eyes she would see President Snow and his grin that made her stomach twist and bile rise in her throat. She could see that needle that they almost injected into her, before Finnick burst in and saved her from her ultimate doom. Finnick. A morose lump swelled up in her throat and her breath caught in her chest. He was leaving her again. He was leaving her so that he could save the damned nation. She sat up and ran her hands through her fiery, red curls and tears filled her eyes. She felt one of the flares coming on, where everything in her mind just went blank…

_Annie swung her feet to the floor, deciding she needed to take a walk through the bunkers. She needed to feel reality. She opened the bunker door slowly, and walked through the hallways of the sleeping cabins. She was just about to exit and continue onto the next sector, when her foot stepped in something thick and sticky. She looked down and a black pool of liquid was surrounding her, a boy with a trident struck through his neck stood watching her blankly. _

"_Annie… You killed me…" He hissed. "YOU DID THIS TO ME, ANNIE!" Annie's heart stopped and a scream rose from her throat, she turned to run, but slipped in the pool of blood, falling into it. Her hair and clothes becoming doused in the iron liquid as she flailed, trying to regain her balance. Then she saw the bodies. Her mother and father laying side by side with tridents sticking out of their necks like forks in pasta, and her brother crudely strewn across them. All her loved ones piling up in front of her, all with tridents plunged in their artery. The last body on top of the hill was the one she feared the most._

"No. No. FINNICK, NO_!" She screamed his name and her beautiful, bronze-haired sea god didn't move. Blood was everywhere, pouring from his eyes, his mouth, his neck, where the trident protruded, and even across his beautiful forehead. "NO! PLEASE, STOP! FINNICK!" She screamed. She fell to the ground, slipping through the lake of red, crying for her lover to open his eyes and be full of life. Finnick, almost as if he was sleeping and had suddenly woken up from a startling dream, opened his eyes and saw her. His green eyes were blank and absent of all love and devotion he always looked at her with. He rose from the pile and walked over to her, pulling the trident from his neck and with one fluent motion plunged it into Annie's heart and she- _

"FINNICK! NO, I'M SORRY! Oh, my God!" Annie screamed in her sleep, Finnick, who had been sleeping in the chair beside her bed, opened his eyes immediately. Being thrown into the arena twice was enough to make anyone a light sleeper.

"Annie, Annie, my love, I'm here…" He whispered to her he grabbed her wrists as she writhed across the mattress. Annie opened her eyes, but they didn't see Finnick, he knew. She saw the arena, the Games…

"Finnick, I'm sorry… I didn't…m-mean to…" She cried out and kicked around, as he tried to restrain her, but finally, Finnick, getting sick of fighting her, pulled her into his lap and held her tightly against him. Annie's shakes and tremors eventually faded and she simply sobbed into his shoulder, her reality coming back to her now. She was in District 13 and she was with him. "I thought…"

"It was the one where you kill me, wasn't it?" He asked like it didn't matter.

"Oh, Finnick…" Her voice was choked and hoarse from screaming. He blinked, knowing in too little of time, he would have to leave her soon. He was leaving at dawn, Boggs, Katniss, and a few other members of the rebellion would be traveling to the Capitol to destroy it all. He wouldn't be back. He knew he wouldn't.

"Annie, I need…" He breathed and felt her sobs subdue and she rearranged herself, so that her head rested on the crook on his shoulder and the rest of her body curled up to the muscular contours of his own body.

"Need what?" She asked with a weak, but innocent tone. Finnick watched her, those beautiful green-blue eyes that seemed to stare into him like she could see his soul. Her crazed curls were loose and tasseled from sleep, and her face was free of all makeup. She was perfect. He watched as her eyes got heavy, as they drooped and got lower and lower. Annie's head nodded slightly to the right, as she lost consciousness and fell into a peaceful sleep. She curled up against him so that she was simply a little ball that formed to him beautifully. He watched her chest rise-and-fall, as if she didn't have a care in the world. An agonizing pain struck behind Finnick's sea green eyes, he started to shake slightly as his own sadness encumbered him. His tears that had been prickling behind his eyes were unleashed, sliding down his face slowly and dripping onto Annie's untamed locks. He let his fingers trail along her jawline and she smiled slightly in her sleep.

"I need you to just stay like this, Annie, in peace. I-I…" He felt a sob wrack through his body and his handsome features distorted into a face that was the epitome of grief. He lifted her up gently and laid her down into her bed, laying down beside her, and pulling her back against him. He sobbed silently into her hair, smelling everything that reminded him of District 4's summers, the sea and the breeze that whipped through his hair… He couldn't leave her. He couldn't.

Morning came, and Finnick did not sleep. He was not even drowsy. He got up before Annie did, grabbing his shirt which he had tossed carelessly on the floor the night before. Annie stirred and made a sweet noise as if she was a babe waking from a long-needed nap. "Finnick?" She asked stretching out like a cat and settling back into the downy bedding.

"Yes, my dove?" He asked her with a charming smile touching his face, giving no hint of the extreme grievances that ate him alive inside.

"You were asking me a question last night, before I fell asleep… Did you…?" She cocked her head adorably and Finnick's heart swelled, almost wanting to burst.

"I _needed_ to find my shirt. Wouldn't want you having a heart attack over…_this._" He said gesturing to his flawless abdomen and raising the balled up wad of cloth in his fist. Annie rolled her eyes and rolled back into her pillow, closing her eyes.

"You're ridiculous, Finnick." She smiled slightly and soon enough, closed her eyes and fell asleep once more. He sat down beside her on the bed. He ran his thumb gently over her temple and kissed it, and no sooner as his lips touched her skin, a knock sounded against the door.

"Odair." It was Boggs' cranky voice that made Finnick even cringe, at times. He swallowed, knowing this was the last time he would see her.

"I needed to tell you, Annie that some things are worth dying for…and you happen to be one of them. I need you, my sweet love…" He felt the pressing weight on his chest once more of the wracking sobs. "I need you to carry my son, and tell him that… That his father loved him, and you, more than anything…" A small tear fell from his eye and he pushed it away with his hand.

"FINNICK ODAIR! NOW!" Boggs banged against the door. Finnick sighed, kissed Annie once more, before setting the little sheet of ivory parchment under her pillow. He touched her cheek and then left , satisfying Boggs, at last.

Annie woke a good time later, to find a small slip of paper beside her pillow. Finnick was writing her love letters, now? She unfolded it and saw there were six words written simply, but elegantly on it: I have needed you, through everything. Annie held it to her chest and cried. Finnick was gone.


End file.
